Glow Scotland

November 16th, 2010

STATE OF EMERGENCY – Day One

Julia Fenby

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Argyll and Bute, Co-Create, Curriculum for Excellence, East Ayrshire, Expressive Arts, Glasgow City, Glow, Glow Groups, Health and Wellbeing, Inverclyde, Literacy, Mathematics, Moving Image Education, National Groups, North Lanarkshire, Outdoor Learning, Religious and Moral Education, Sciences, Social Studies, South Lanarkshire, Technologies, West Lothian, modern languages

“This film is about what’s going on in my city, right now”…..

For S2 pupils in seven secondary schools, this week began with the first of four webisodes about conflict. Each day, they will learn about the crisis and dilemmas faced when a city is transformed into a war zone.

Over the last few months, teachers have been working together with Visible Fictions theatre company to share ideas and plan activities for this intensive week. The State of Emergency Glow Group is the central collaborative space for all participants; it contains an amazing bank of documents and information on war and related issues, with materials relevant to all subject areas and aspects of the Curriculum.

Now State of Emergency has begun, schools are uploading images, videos and diary entries about their experiences and their learning. Here are just a few entries from Day One:

“Red Cross and Army came through as did staff in school….Loads of discussion, design of emergency shelters, building emergency shelters, army assault course, science dept filtering dirty burn water through socks, tights, sand and other things and the webcasts – first class. We also had our own STV newsdesk presentations personalising the state of emergency to Cumnock. Roll on day 2..”

Teacher, Cumnock Academy

“We started playing games to get to know each other. We then got into groups to discuss the film we watched in the morning, we also discussed what a state of emergency is and the things we would need if this happened.  After lunch a police officer came into the school and showed us their equipment for a riot and a state of emergency. We got back to class we talked about the difference between needs and wants, we came to a conclusion about healthcare, basic food, childcare, water and shelter as our basic needs.  Transport caused us come debate but in the end we decided in was a need because our legs are a type of transport too.  Nearer the end of the day we talked about world war two, rationing, the dig for victory and make mend and do campaigns.  Pupil, Bathgate Academy

And from a teacher in Greenock Academy:

“We thought we’d struggle to fill three days, now we think we could keep this running for two whole weeks”

For an overview of the project read the recent TES article and visit the State of Emergency Glow Group.

Co-Create is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Creative Scotland National Lottery Fund.

Image credit: Eoghann MacColl, Cumnock Academy

September 20th, 2010

Co-Create at the Scottish Learning Festival

Julia Fenby

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Argyll and Bute, Co-Create, Curriculum for Excellence, East Ayrshire, Expressive Arts, Glasgow City, Glow, Glow Groups, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, Outdoor Learning, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, Sciences, Shetland Islands, Social Studies, South Lanarkshire, Technologies, West Lothian, Western Isles

Throughout 2010, ten demonstration projects are taking place in 18 local authorities across Scotland. Arts organisations are working together with teachers, pupils and other partners to explore and develop new approaches to teaching and learning using Glow and supporting delivery of Curriculum for Excellence. Four projects are presenting at the Scottish Learning Festival. Don’t miss:

S1A – Make Art Not War: A Dynamic, Interactive, Cross-curricular Experience for S2 pupils
Paul Gorman from Visible Fictions Theatre Company talks about ‘State of Emergency’, an ambitious project in which a series of webisodes and ‘live’ broadcasts from an online fictional country will be created and broadcast through Glow in November. This seminar outlines the process so far to highlight how creative approaches, facilitated within Glow, can ensure best practice in Curriculum for Excellence.

B1C – Curriculum for Excellence: Enhancing Performing Arts Experiences through Glow This seminar presents a new online learning resource that aims to support teachers and pupils to evaluate and appreciate performing arts experiences. The new resource supports teachers in meeting Curriculum for Excellence expressive arts experiences and outcomes across all levels and is a development of Imaginate’s range of resources on art appreciation.

B1E – Glow Co-Create model project: Hooks + Bites
Barbara Chalmers and the Plan B Collective team give a presentation on how they worked together with nursery, P7 and S6 pupils from St John’s Academy Perth to create a digital art bank for Glow made up of sound journeys, percussion and digital animation based on the pupils’ experience of ‘transition’.

B1H – Co-Creating with Glow: Walking Within Langass Wood
Join Sarah MacIntyre to hear about this collaborative project involving S2 pupils and staff from Sgoil Lionacleit (Benbecula), Carinish and Lochmaddy Primary Schools, Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre, Urras nan Craobh Uibhist a Tuath (North Uist Woodland Trust), and Scottish Natural Heritage. The project aims to creatively interpret the ecology and heritage of Langass Woods on North Uist through visual art, creative writing, science, history, geography and music.

Co-Create is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund.

Image credits: Visible Fictions; Screen Media & Imaginate; Plan B Collective; Sgoil Lionacleit

August 20th, 2010

New class and new pupils? Why not use Glow to get to know them better?

Gail Cairns

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Glow Groups, Inverclyde

Gourock Primary School was faced with a situation common to many schools – a change of staffing and a new teacher having to establish relationships with their new pupils.

The Primary 5 class in Gourock Primary School, Inverclyde got a new teacher midway through the school year. A Discussion Board within the Getting To Know You Glow Group was used to allow the pupils and their new teacher get to know each other better.

Isobel Sutherland used a Discussion Board in the class Getting To Know You Glow Group to pose the class a few questions to try and get to know them better. A new pupil had also recently joined the class, and the Discussion Board had added value as it allowed her to find out more about her new classmates. From the posts in the Discussion Board, Isobel found out some interesting details about her new class, and the pupils also found out new things about each other.

As luck would have it, a further change of staffing saw Isobel move Authority and Jaclyn McIlvogue take over the teaching of P5. With the Group already established, Jaclyn could easily find out more about her new pupils and let them know more about her interests too. It is the views of Jaclyn on the impact of the Discussion Board that we hear later in this Cookbook.

Visit this cookbook.

August 11th, 2010

Glowing Cookbook – Highlanders’ Highlights School Magazine in Glow

Gail Cairns

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Inverclyde

Alison Smith, P7 teacher at Highlanders Academy Primary School in Inverclyde, was looking for an after school responsibility and looked at taking an ICT club. Given that she’s also the Glow Mentor at Highlanders she had planned to find a purposeful use of Glow and this seemed like the ideal opportunity to team these up. 

Alison had in mind that each school in Inverclyde has to produce a 4 page spread in the Greenock Telegraph and this responsibility usually sits with the P7s. She had worked with a previous P7 class to produce a paper version of a newspaper which the pupils had really enjoyed. Alison thought it would be ideal to undertake something with the ICT Club, using Glow and also getting them ready for the spread in the Greenock Telegraph. The Highlanders’ Highlights Glow Group was born.

Visit this cookbook to find out:
• What the Highlanders’ Highlights Glow Group looks like
• How the pages and web parts were used to become a newspaper

June 11th, 2008

Glow Mentor training sparks some creative ideas

rpitman

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Aberdeenshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Inverclyde

The latest Glow Mentor training proved inspirational for the educational community in Dumfries and Galloway, Inverclyde and Aberdeenshire.

Mentors in Dumfries and Galloway have already got started on a project where each school in the authority creates a virtual island. The island is populated by characters created by the pupils, and the islands communicate and collaborate through the tools available in Glow.

In Inverclyde, mentors plan to use Glow to help pupils catch up following absence or revise for a test or exam. Mentors also felt Glow provided a golden opportunity to involve parents in their child’s education, and are keen to start uploading material to keep pupils’ families informed.

One of the most interesting ideas to emerge from the Aberdeenshire event was mentors’ plans to train their pupils in Glow. The ‘Glow Bugs’ would then pass on their new knowledge to classmates, and earn their ‘Glow Wings’.

Feedback from the Mentors was very encouraging, and they have wasted no time in getting started with their projects. See future issues of Glowing for more updates!